Week 2 - Wordle Ideas

After you have experienced creating a WORDLE, post a comment about anything you have observed about Wordle or your ideas for how you might use it instructionally. See the examples provided below. When you are ready to post your thoughts about Wordle, remember to click on EDIT THIS PAGE at the top right, then click in the next available row in the table to type your name and your one sentence idea or thought about Wordle.
If all the rows have been used, click in the last row and then click on the table icon (). Then, choose Row, Add Row, Add below to add another row for your entry.

BE SURE TO SAVE! Revisit this page to see what others have posted-save good ideas to use in your classroom!

Participant Name	Ideas about using a Web 2.0 Technology like Wordle
Donna Pepper	I like the way words that I have used more than once appear larger since it helps me get a visual of the "big ideas" in my writing.
Cheryl Ward	Paste in the content of a famous speech and see if students know the speech, study the words used most frequently, is that why the speech was famous?
Craig/ Shroder	Nice review opportunity- I can see kids using this as a way to remember/ study for final exam that quickly helps them review.
Janet Gelfo	Good switch on vocabulary lists; for instance photosynthesis.
Amy Baxter	Wordle could be used to show the many characteristics of different characters in literature; leaving the characters' names out of it would be a neat way to check how well students can identify and understand different characters.
Anthony Holcombe	This is a great tool to have student Enlightment thinkers and why one may be more important than the other. Also great for vocabulary review.
Amy Masterson	I have already had experience using this program. This year I had students analyze and explain Martin Luther King' speeck, "I have a Dream." Students were able to understand what MLK was trying to stress with civil rights. Also, for next year, I will use a wordle over the Treaty of Versailles from the end of WWI about the creation of the League of Nations. When this portion of the treaty is placed into the program it is interesting to note that peace is not a common word used. Note from Donna - glad to hear you have used this tool already, Amy. I remember after Obama was inaugurated, that a similar thing was done with his speech. As you say, it's often good to talk about what words aren't there or aren't emphasized that maybe should be.
Shane Hancock	Unit introductions or reviews (pre/post assessments)! Students could write a few senctences about what they know about a specific topic and then create a Wordle with it. It would be easy to see, with just a glance, if they have a good understanding about a topic or not. This could also be done for homework and subitted electronically and examples could be shown the next day in class. Useful tool!
Jen Curry	All of these ideas are great. I thought these word pictures would make great discussion starters for a new topic or review for the end of a unit/section. They would aslo make neat cover pages for papers or projects that students might create. I teach math and tried to paste in some of the symbols that are used in different sections and was disappointed that they would not show up with the vocabulary in the picture. Otherwise, I thought it was a great website.
Lisa Casto	One of the teachers I work with has used this tool already. He had students put in the speeches of three different presidents from different time periods. The students then had to compare and contrast the ideas found in the speeches.
Christine Boyd	I've never used wordle. I think it would be a great way to give students words that must be used in their paragraphs. Or use in reverse, students can pick out words from their reading that they are not sure about and create a wordle and compare to other students, then they can work together to identify what they mean and how to use them correctly.
Kennie Brown	This would obviously be great with vocabulary. I use backward design to plan my units and this would be a great way to stress to students the "big ideas" and "enduring understanding" for the unit.
Kathy Yocum	I've used Wordle before but not with my students yet. Learned about it in a summer course last year. I plan to use it with students as a way to get them to summarize important points about themselves, what they like to do, favorite foods, favorite singer, and so on. The more important items in their lives would naturally be larger size. Then we could move on to characters in a book and their attributes. I think you need the first activity where the students create something about themselves because then they can relate to the next activity better. You could also do a Wordle about any famous person, topic, etc.
Andrea White	I have never used a wordle before, but I think it would be a great tool to introduce vocabulary for a social studies unit, highlight important figures from a period of time that you are covering, or a way to introduce geographic areas.
Jerad Call	Students could use wordle to summarize or express their own ideas and opinions about an event.
Carolyn	I've seen this but never used it. It is a fun tool that could show students overuse of words in their writing and then make a corrected copy and compare. I can see many uses for this tool.